December 28, 2005
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Christmas Eve at Felony Flats
Greyfox again–SuSu’s comp is still in the shop. The area where I live is cruelly known as Felony Flats by the local NIMBYs. It consists of an unpaved and ungreened strip maybe a klick long, consisting of storage units–some of which are inhabited–and cabins, some of which are quite large and luxurious, renting for $800 a month. Thing is, the denizens tend to be an unsavory lot–many are dopers and meth freaks, ex-cons, and professional loonies (that is, folks subsisting on SSI Mental Disability). The landlord–who is a genuinely nice guy, even-tempered, a devoted family man AND a former Iditarod musher (Greyfox removes fedora reverently)–has his hands tied by Alaska’s rental laws, which favor the tenants–even the worthless, doped-out deadbeat white trash.
Anyway, this Christmas Eve, I had just gotten off my bed where I had been reading, accompanied by three of my five cats, having decided to finally clean out the litter box. I saw a young woman bearing a large fancy shopping bag heading towards my cabin. She looked harmless, so I didn’t go for my gun. (Note to fellow gun nuts–my gun du jour is a snub-nosed .38 special, an off-brand model, which I keep loaded with Hydra-shoks–steel-cored jacketed hollow-points favored by military and law enforcement for their stopping power–getting hit with one of these babies is roughly like having a small car fall on you. But I digress.)
Anyway, she held out the bag to me and said “This is for you. Merry Christmas.”
Never at a loss for words, I cleverly replied, “Um, er–my goodness. Thank you very much.”
There was a small votive candle and an unsigned card (it just said “In memory of the baby Jesus–Merry Christmas”), which included a pack of matches for lighting the candle, plus a number of wrapped packages, including a jigsaw puzzle (which Kathy will get), a bag of M&Ms (which Doug will get), cocoa mix (also for Doug), plus beef summer sausage, canned mandarin orange segments, fancy snack crackers and cheese dip–stuff like that. I was touched and moved.
Evidently, not all of the neighbors hate us poor folk who live at Felony Flats.
Comments (8)
wow…that was really nice.
$800 a month…is that good for rent?
:sunny: That was very cool….. You write as descriptively as SuSu does, making it so I can visulaize all of what you each write, and i really enjoy that. I have a picture of felony flatsin my head, based on both of your writings of it. I’d love to see if it looks anything like the image in my mind. Maybe when SuSu get’s her comp. back she could post some pic.s of it there???? Stories like this one make me second guess my normally cynical attitude towards most people in the world. Merry belated Christmas to you!
:rolleyes: visualize…..oops.
How beautiful.
…but this ‘puter is always ill……:wha:
nor fear
That was a very kind thing for her to do..
Very cool